Where do natural identical flavors come from?: An emergency doctor's medical blog. Types of food flavors

Irina Mastryukova, Head of Quality Department, Valio LLC:

Flavorings are substances that enhance flavor and aroma. They are added to food products to improve the organoleptic properties - taste and smell. With the help of flavorings of quite the same type of products, different, recognizable natural tastes and aromas of fruits, berries, vegetables, and so on are “assigned”.

All flavors can be conditionally divided into natural compounds (natural flavors) and substances that mimic natural ones. The first type of flavoring additives is isolated from berries, fruits, vegetables, plants in the form of juices, essences or concentrates. Flavors that mimic natural flavors can be identical to natural or artificial. They are obtained synthetically, and the methods for obtaining additives in this group can be very diverse.

The chemical nature of flavors that are identical to natural ones can also be very different. It includes various components, for example: essential oils, aldehydes, alcohols, esters and the like. In the production of such flavor additives, the most important thing is to reproduce compounds that are identical in their chemical composition to the substances that make up the flavor created by nature. Not all raw materials for them are grown in the garden, some can be obtained in laboratories. But in terms of its main organoleptic properties (taste and smell), a flavor that is identical to natural should not differ from natural in any way. Natural flavors are more expensive than their synthetic counterparts and do not have high heat, acid and temporal stability.

In the dairy industry, flavoring additives are used in the production of fruit and berry yoghurts, curds and various desserts, and the type of flavoring is indicated in the technical text on the label. In the last decade, consumers around the world have become very attentive to the composition of the products they buy. Ingredients with complex names, the origin of which is difficult for a non-specialist to determine, raise questions. That is why the concept of a "clean label", in English Clean Label, is becoming more and more popular: products that contain only simple and understandable components. Natural, as they say.

Yulia Khankhalaeva, brand manager of Ahmad Tea Ltd.:

“According to the European classification, a flavor that is identical to natural is compiled according to a chemical structure that coincides with the structure of natural substances. Such flavors are considered harmless and are approved for use in the food industry in all countries of the world.

Modern flavors used in the food industry are obtained from natural raw materials (vegetable or animal origin) through physical, enzymatic or microbiological processes. The quality and quantity of flavors in the Russian Federation are controlled by the technical regulation TR CU 029/2012 "Safety requirements for food additives, flavors and technological aids". The manufacturer must indicate the presence of these substances on the packaging.

Flavors are divided into five types.

FTNF Natural Flavor is composed of 95% of the fruit or natural substance directly named in the formulation, with 5% of other fruit or natural substance added.

WONF Natural Flavoring is biotechnologically produced from the fruit, berry or other natural substance that is specifically designated in the composition, with the addition of other fruits, berries, etc., in a larger proportion than in FTNF.

Natural flavoring FOS is biotechnologically made from other fruits or natural substances - that is, it does not contain the product directly indicated in the name.

Flavoring agent identical to natural is composed according to the chemical structure that coincides with the structure of natural substances, but not on the basis of natural substances.

Artificial flavoring is made up exclusively of artificial substances, and the structure of natural substances is also ignored.

Ahmad Tea Ltd. in its blends, it uses partly natural flavors and partly identical natural flavors, but never artificial flavors.”

Food flavorings are substances that are used in confectionery. Their main purpose is to enhance the aroma and taste of the cooked dish. The variety of food flavorings is huge, perhaps there are no restrictions. Homemade cakes can be given absolutely any flavor.

What are flavors?

Food flavorings are substances or preparations that are food additives. They are added in order to give or enhance the taste and aroma of baked goods. We are not talking about salty, sweet, spicy and other tastes, flavors do not have such properties. But the smell of berries, fruits, chocolate, etc. can be enhanced in baking.

Flavors can be artificially created or based on a natural product.

The harm and benefits of food flavorings

The scope of the use of food additives is mainly gastronomic, so there should not be a detrimental effect on the body. But is it?

Food colorings and flavorings, depending on their composition and method of manufacture, can be beneficial as well as harmful.

Useful properties include the following:

1. Enhancement of aroma and taste.
2. Food savings: Instead of adding a lot of fruit to the cake for taste and smell, you can get by with a small amount of food flavoring.

As for the harm from the supplement, it can be as follows:

1. Increased appetite from a particular flavor. And this, in turn, will provoke the eating of a large number of high-calorie foods.
2. Allergic intolerance to any type of flavoring.
3. The composition of such substances may contain hazardous components that can cause various modifications in the body.

In most cases, food flavorings do not carry a serious danger. But artificially obtained should be treated with caution.

Varieties of food additive

There are several types of food flavorings:

1. Natural, in the manufacture of which only natural ingredients are used.
2. Artificial - synthetically derived ingredients are used to create them, and a proportion of natural components may also be present.
3. Identical to natural - in the composition of such flavors there are substances artificially obtained, but whose chemical formula completely repeats the formula of natural substances.

1. By area of ​​use:

• confectionery;
• for the manufacture of drinks;
• oil and fat;
• gastronomic.

2. Aggregate state:

• liquid food flavors;
• powdered;
• in the form of an emulsion.

3. Cooking method:

• smoke;
• technological;
• compositional.

Application

Food additives - flavorings - are used in the gastronomic industry to give the finished product a more appetizing, attractive look and taste. Thanks to this development of a person, it becomes possible:

1. Diversify the assortment of the same type of products due to various flavorings. For example, a selection of cakes with a wide variety of flavors.
2. Partially or even completely restore the taste lost by the product (lost during long-term storage, freezing, preservation, etc.).
3. Bring to the standard the flavor and aroma characteristics of gastronomic products that do not depend on annual interruptions in the quality of the original agricultural raw materials.
4. Enhance the aroma and taste already present in the food product.
5. Kill or completely remove the unpleasant natural taste.
6. To give an inexhaustible flavor to food that loses its odors during certain types of processing (thermal, for example).
7. To give flavor to products that do not have their own smells, but are very useful for other qualities.

Food flavorings are used in confectionery, dairy production, in the manufacture of beverages, etc. Their quantity in products must correspond to the norm of odors that the added amount of the corresponding natural ingredients exudes. With an overestimated amount of flavorings, not only the taste deteriorates, the product is questioned about the quality and naturalness.

Production

Liquid food flavors are made from the required amount of aroma components dissolved in 1,2-propylene glycol, ethyl alcohol, triacetin, etc. After that, the finished solution is filtered.

Flavored liquid emulsions are produced by emulsifying aroma ingredients in water with the addition of special substances and using special equipment.

Natural food flavorings are produced by applying flavoring substances to a suitable powdered carrier (eg salt, sugar, starch). The process is accompanied by thorough mixing.

These methods are applicable to oxidation-resistant flavors. There is a more complex method of preparation - encapsulation.

The best, but at the same time the most expensive way is to obtain an emulsion of aromatic substances in a solution of an encapsulated agent (axacia gum, for example).

Technological liquid, dry and powdered food flavorings are made according to a special Maillard reaction. Its meaning lies in the interaction of amino acids and sugars when heated.

Smoke food additives are produced by the adsorption of smoke with water. These smokes are used for smoking products.

- Recently, finding natural flavors in the composition of food products is a rare success. At best, the product contains flavors that are identical to natural, and at worst, artificial flavors. I would like to know what is hidden behind the term "natural identical flavors"?

As nutrition experts explain, food flavors are additives that are added to a food product to improve its aroma and taste. The use of flavorings allows manufacturers to create the widest range of food products that differ in aroma and taste, based on the same type of product: hard candy, marmalade, soft drinks, jelly, ice cream, yogurt, and so on. Flavors are divided into natural, identical to natural and artificial.

natural flavors obtained by physical methods (pressing, extraction, distillation) from raw materials of plant or animal origin. For various reasons, the production of food products using only natural flavors is not possible: one of them is the high cost of natural flavors, the second is the weak or insufficient stability of natural flavors.

Flavors, identical to natural they are obtained, figuratively speaking, not in the garden, but in the laboratory: the flavors of "strawberry", "peach", "black currant", "apricot" and so on consist of the same components as natural berries and fruits, only they are obtained by the method chemical synthesis, completely repeating their chemical formula. Identical to natural means "same as natural". Artificial flavors are also used in food production - they may contain one or more artificial substances that are not found in nature. For example, the taste and aroma of vanilla can give the product not only vanillin, but also ethyl vanillin - a combination not found in nature, but obtained by chemical methods.

However, a completely logical question arises: why add flavors when you can use natural fruits and berries? The fact is that most combinations that convey the taste and aroma of natural fruits and berries are unstable when exposed to high temperatures. And flavorings allow you to restore the taste and aroma, which are partially lost during storage, processing, freezing, pasteurization or canning. In addition, flavors can enhance the natural taste and aroma of foods, or flavor products made from valuable raw materials that are devoid of flavors, such as processed soy. Flavorings also help to deprive foods of an unpleasant taste.

- My children categorically refuse to drink milk. They do not allow adding it even to cereals. Like, the figure must be protected. And none of my persuasions work on them. Help convince them...

Experts state: the diet of Belarusians is characterized by low calcium, which entails disturbances in the functioning of various organs and systems of the body, primarily the skeletal system. Therefore, the main argument in favor of milk is that it is milk that supplies the human body with the lion's share of phosphorus and calcium in the most accessible and easily digestible form!

In general, milk is characterized by an optimal balance of nutrients and a high degree of assimilation by the body. It contains hundreds of various valuable components: more than 20 optimally balanced amino acids, over 140 fatty acids, milk sugar lactose, a rich assortment of minerals, trace elements, vitamins, phosphatides, enzymes, hormones and other substances necessary for the body to maintain normal life. According to the content of essential amino acids, milk proteins are classified as proteins of high biological value. The degree of assimilation of milk proteins is very high - 96-98 percent.

Now as to the threat that milk consumption can supposedly pose to the figure. Experts explain that whole milk refers to foods with an average cholesterol content. Therefore, those who care about excess weight can be advised to use low-fat dairy products or low-fat milk: 1.5% instead of 3.5%, milky, not creamy yogurt, sour cream with a fat content of 10 to 15% instead of 20 - 25%. For example, a cup of whole milk contains about 30 mg of cholesterol, a cup of 2% fat milk has 15 mg, and a cup of skimmed milk contains only 7 mg of cholesterol. Skimmed milk as a source of complete human protein is included in the healthy eating pyramid with a recommendation to consume 2-3 cups per day. It is very important that skimmed milk is completely converted from whole milk proteins and milk sugar. It also includes phosphatides, non-protein nitrogenous combinations, vitamins, enzymes, hormones and other combinations. In terms of value, low-fat milk is practically not inferior to whole milk.

- Tell me, what can I replace sugar in the diet with? How safe is it to sweeten coffee with synthetic sugar substitutes?

In terms of calories, most natural sugar substitutes are not inferior to it, but they are sweeter, and therefore the dose of their consumption is less. The best-known plant-based sugar substitutes are sorbitol and fructose. They can be used even by patients with diabetes. High-quality fructose is almost twice as sweet as sugar, and sorbitol is one and a half. In daily consumption, it is better to give preference fructose, since sorbitol has one unpleasant side effect - it has a laxative effect.

Of the synthetic sweeteners, the most common are sodium cyclamate and aspartame. They are sold in the form of small tablets (“Zukli”, “Susli”, “Sladis” and others), and in the tablet itself their content is completely insignificant, everything else is a filler, usually starch. But these tablets are extremely sweet. One sweetener tablet equals one teaspoon of sugar. True, discussions about the safety of using synthetic sweeteners in the world continue. In European countries, for example, the use of aspartame is prohibited in the diet of young children. It is not recommended for teenagers either, although it is they who become the main consumers of aspartame, since this sugar substitute is found in all "light" sodas with the prefix "light". Aspartame is strictly forbidden to consume with phenylketonuria. The “geography” of cyclamate consumption is even more limited: it is banned for use in the USA, France, Great Britain and several other countries. It is believed that sodium cyclamate provokes kidney failure. It is forbidden to consume cyclamate to pregnant women and nursing mothers. The recommended safe doses of aspartame consumption are 40 mg per 1 kilogram of human weight, and sodium cyclamate - 10 mg per kilogram of body weight.

A natural identical flavor is a flavor identified in raw materials of plant or animal origin and obtained by chemical methods.

Natural Identical Flavor - A food flavor whose flavor component contains one or more natural identical flavors. It may also contain natural flavors, process (reaction) and smoke (smoke) flavors.

Identical to natural substances contain chemical compounds identified (found) in raw materials of plant or animal origin. They are obtained by chemical synthesis or isolation from natural raw materials. Along with the identical, the flavor may contain natural ingredients.

Flavors that are identical to natural include vanillin, raspberry ketone, ethyl acetate, amyl acetate, ethyl formate and others.

In Russia In accordance with GOST R52464-2005 Identical to natural flavoring is a food flavoring, the flavoring part of which contains one or more flavoring substances identical to natural ones, may contain flavoring preparations and natural flavoring substances. In other words, these are chemical compounds similar in composition to compounds in raw materials of plant or animal origin, but obtained by chemical synthesis, or isolated from raw materials by a chemical method. Flavors identical to natural may contain natural ingredients.

In the US, and now in the European Union, the term "natural identical flavor" is not used.

Artificial Flavors

Artificial flavor - food flavor, the flavoring part of which contains one or more artificial flavoring substances, may contain flavoring preparations, natural and identical natural flavoring substances. That is, it is an artificially synthesized chemical compound that has no analogues in nature.

Artificial flavor - food flavor, the aromatic component of which contains one or more artificial aromatic substances. It may also contain natural and nature identical flavors.

Artificial flavors include at least one artificial component - a compound not currently identified (not found) in plant and animal raw materials

In the European Union, the term "artificial flavor" is not used. The category "flavorings" referred to in the European definition of food flavoring includes only the subcategory "natural flavorings".

All flavors that do not fall under the definition of "natural" are classified as artificial by the American food law.

A flavoring preparation is a mixture of flavoring and other substances isolated from raw materials of plant or animal origin, including those processed by traditional methods of food preparation using physical or biotechnological methods.

An artificial flavoring substance is a flavoring substance obtained by chemical synthesis methods that is not identified in raw materials of plant or animal origin.

Technological flavoring agent is a flavoring agent identical to natural, which is a mixture of substances obtained as a result of the interaction of amino compounds and reducing sugars when heated

The flavoring may additionally contain natural and natural-identical components. They are produced by chemical synthesis. Food flavorings may consist of any individual flavoring substance of various organic nature or a mixture thereof. The taste and aroma of the finished product depends not only on the added flavorings, flavor enhancers and aroma - it is also the result of the action of a large number of compounds contained in the raw materials and formed during the technological process.

Essential oils, aromatic substances, extracts and infusions can be the main sources of obtaining aromatic substances; natural fruit and vegetable juices, incl. liquid, pasty and dry concentrates; spices and products of their processing; chemical and microbiological synthesis.

Flavorings are produced in the form of liquid solutions and emulsions, dry or pasty products. Substances and compounds of this type, like all other food additives, must comply with hygienic safety standards. Their use must necessarily be controlled in the finished product and indicated to the consumer on the individual packaging of the product. The use of flavors in specific food products is regulated by technical documentation (TU, TI)

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